Forum Discussion

morley's avatar
morley
Explorer
May 06, 2016

Why Do They Do This?

Just had to replace the drain line on our Dometic fridge, the original condensate line installed by Dometic was of such poor quality, it disintegrated completely after only 6 years from normal weathering, it was an accident looking for a place to happen.
Bottom line to replace the line with a much better high quality plastic condensate drain line and clamp (total cost of parts $5.00) the total cost was $289.00 which I felt was quite reasonable as the fridge had to be removed completely, reinstalled, propane lines disconnected, reconnected and tested, etc. All to replace a $5.00 condensate line.
My complaint is why do these manufactures like Dometic make such a good product with such a piece of garbage condensate line???
  • ^^^^^^^^^^^I could believe that if they still weren't using the same type of hose. It looks like the same kind anyway and it's just as fragile.
  • Keep in mind that when they built that refrigerator 6 or 8 years ago, they used a hose that was available at the time. It would have been impractical to test the quality of the hose for ten years first to see if it would hold up.

    There are many materials they use that eventually prove not to be the best quality, but only time will tell. Once they realize that it wasn't the best product, they move onto another/newer hose and hope that it holds up.

    Remember, products are improving all the time, you can't expect a product developed 10 years ago, to perform the same as a product developed last year.
  • I turned the drip tray around so I could catch water in a little jar. $0.00
  • Replaced mine last year at 7 yrs old when it crumbled. Fortunately my fridge is in a slide and it has a vent near the bottom of the slide and another near the top of the slide. I could just reach in the vents, pull the old hose out, route a new piece of plastic tubing up thru the maze, and attach it to the fitting on the back of the fridge. Couple of dollars for the tubing.
  • morley wrote:

    My complaint is why do these manufactures like Dometic make such a good product with such a piece of garbage condensate line???


    They saved maybe $.04?
  • Meanwhile, the 1998 Coachman TT we used to have (with Dometic Fridge) that now resides with a family member still has the original cheap plastic drain line. And it still works. This is a camper that's spent its entire post-manufactured life in the not-so-arctic region of inner FL.
  • Yea I replaced mine about 2 months ago, the old drain hose was just cheap plastic, I went over to Lowes and bought a quality kink free rubber hose and did the job myself, did not need to pull out fridg.
  • Exposed to all that heat being generated and removed so your goodies stay cold.


    Course YOU could have done it yourself.
    Fridge only needs to be pulled out far enough to get to drip tray connector and route new hose

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